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I noticed yesterday that J.K. Rowling was on the front cover of the Radio Times, heralding the start of the latest series of Who Do You Think You Are? in the UK. Of course I have seen various announcements prior to this, but to be honest I haven’t really taken much interest in the upcoming series.

I suppose I should be getting excited about the new series, after all it is bringing genealogy to the small screen, but really is it going to be worth the effort to watch it? A couple of years ago I would have been getting excited about the prospect of a new series, but this year I couldn’t really care less.

What are the reasons for this?

Quality – the last couple of series have on the whole been rather disappointing, most of what I can remember about the last couple of series is how annoying/uninteresting/dull I found a lot of it. Don’t get me wrong, there were some high points, but I am struggling to remember them.

Time – I don’t have a lot of spare time, so taking sixty minutes out to watch television is not something that I do lightly. There are probably much more enjoyable and productive things I can do with my time.

Past my bedtime – I know it starts at nine o’clock only lasts an hour, but I have to be up at 5:15am the following morning (and every weekday morning) so I like to be in bed by 9:30pm. I know I could also watch it on the BBC iPlayer, but I know that I am never going to get around to actually watching it.

Having said all that, it is my “reviews” of WDYTYA? that attract the most visitors to my blog (which sometimes annoys me because they are not coming to read about my ancestors but to read about celebrities), but they are visitors nevertheless. So I really ought to be writing about the series, in fact no self-respecting genealogy blogger should be missing out on it.

So I really ought to give it a try, but if I find myself shouting angrily at the television in the first episode or starting to nod off then that will be it.